The present invention relates to the field of food technology, in particular sweetener compositions, or compositions having a reduced physiological calorific value (energy content) for sweetening foods.
In particular, the present invention relates to a sweetener composition, in particular having a reduced physiological calorific value (energy content) that can preferably be used for sweetening foods.
In addition, the present invention relates to the use according to the invention of the sweetener composition according to the invention.
Nutrition plays an important role with respect to maintenance of health and feeling of wellbeing of the human body. In particular, in industrialized countries, the nutritional habits with respect to balanced and healthy nutrition are frequently not optimal. In particular, frequently, foods are consumed which have an excessive fat content and also a very high sugar content. Also, cereal products that are low in dietary fiber, in particular those based on wheat flour, are consumed in excess. This dietary habit that is typical in particular of industrialized countries leads to an increasing displacement of foods having a high dietary fiber content, and so the beneficial action of a diet rich in dietary fiber is absent in current nutritional habits.
As a consequence of this unbalanced nutrition, frequently certain syndromes occur, such as caries, constipation, diverticulitis, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and also tumor disorders, such as large bowel cancer. With respect to the abovementioned diseases, frequently also there can be a relationship with an insufficient intake of dietary fibers, which can cause or sometimes reinforce the abovementioned diseases. A change in nutritional habits towards a whole food diet rich in dietary fiber frequently leads to an improvement of the diseases in question or prevents them appearing at all. Against this background, an adequate intake of dietary fibers therefore assumes an important role with respect to the maintenance of health of the human body.
With respect to the beneficial properties of dietary fibers, in addition, it is assumed that owing to a diet rich in dietary fibers, the risk of suffering coronary heart disease can be decreased, in particular in the context that dietary fibers lead to an increased secretion of bile acids and in addition have a cholesterol-lowering effect. Likewise, it is considered to be certain that a diet rich in dietary fiber can be used for treatment of diverticulitis.
Generally, dietary fibers are substantially indigestible food components which cannot be cleaved by human digestive secretions into fragments that are utilizable by the body and therefore are not utilizable by the digestive system as nutrients. Generally, dietary fibers can also be subdivided on the basis of their physical properties: thus, firstly there are water-insoluble dietary fibers which are generally able to bind water thereto, and so in this manner, for example, stool volume is increased, accompanied by a stimulation of intestinal movement, which can counteract constipation, for example. In addition, there are what are termed water-soluble dietary fibers which are generally soluble in water. Such water-soluble dietary fibers can, in addition, in particular in the large intestine, be fermented at least in part by the microorganisms present there and, inter alia, be converted into short-chain fatty acids, which are substantially resorbed by large bowel mucosa, and can serve for the nutrition of mucosal cells, which can equally have a beneficial effect on health.
On the basis of the beneficial properties of dietary fibers, together with the accompanying prevention of diseases, the German Nutrition Society recommends a daily consumption of at least 30 g of dietary fibers. However, owing to modern diets, which, in particular, are directed towards the consumption of industrially preprepared foods, this is not always ensured.
Furthermore, diets in industrial countries are also frequently directed towards the consumption of sometimes highly sweetened foods. Against the background of a constantly increasing requirement for healthy and, in particular, calorie-conscious nutrition, in the prior art, reduced-calorie products are used as alternative sweeteners to classical crystalline sugar (i.e. sucrose). These can be used, for example, in the form of what are called loose sweeteners or table sweeteners, and also in the form of compactates or tablets or else in the form of aqueous compositions or liquid sweeteners.
Such sweeteners of the prior art, which are widespread, completely exclude the aspect of providing further components having a beneficial effect on health, in particular with respect to the abovementioned dietary fibers. In addition, on the basis of the sweeteners known in the prior art, it is not possible to adjust or tailor the organoleptic properties of the foods that are to be sweetened in a specific manner, for example which concerns viscosity or creaminess or the like of, in particular, liquid foods, for example based on drinks.
A further disadvantage of the sweeteners known in the prior art is, in addition, frequently considered to be that, owing to the special composition and sometimes exclusive use of sweeteners, they are difficult to meter as such with respect to sweetening power and, in addition, frequently have an unnatural or artificial sweet taste. Therefore, the sensory properties of the sweeteners known in the prior art are sometimes not optimal.